West Bridge Journals

THE DUNE BUGGY

It sounded like a mosquito only louder, and it was coming from down by the chicken houses. Every now and then we could catch a fleeting glance of something moving around the barns and outbuilding, going very fast. I was kind of new to the neighborhood, and was not sure if this was a new type of farm equipment, or what. That “EEEEEEEE-eeeeeeeee” sound was not like any tractor I had heard.

Uncle I.T. and I had gone over to Ray’s farm just to say “howdy”. All the crops were in, and the Burnett’s were getting ready to go to the deer woods over on “Wood Pecker Route” for a week. This was a time for father and sons to spend time together, alone with other male kinfolk and do a little male bonding. Ray had told the boys teachers that they would be out of school that whole week, as he had been doing every since they were big enough to hunt.

Some of their kinfolk were there that day helping get the camper ready. I know Danny was there. Anyway we were standing around talking and being neighborly when I heard that sound way off in the distance. I was the only one that seemed to notice it for some reason. However, 10 years in the military had left me with a habit of checking out strange sounds. And this was a strange one, to say the least. You could hear it slightly when it was behind the buildings, kind of like a soft “eeeeeeee”. But when it went between the buildings, with nothing to block the noise, it was “EEEEEEEEE” then it sounded like it shifted gears to “eeeeeeeeee”.

As it made its way toward us, in and out of the farm buildings, I could tell that it was a homemade vehicle of some kind, and Ray’s two youngest sons were riding it. They came flying us to us, I mean right up on us. I was only about five feet away when Keith who was driving stomped on the brakes and did a hard left turn, and the buggy promptly turned over on its side. Craig kind of just flew over the roll bars, rolled and quickly came up on his feet. He calmly walked back and helped Keith turn the buggy back on it wheels.

I do believe that was the first time I saw Ray angry. I could tell he was angry because he yelled at Danny, (who was doubled over with laugher), “What are you laughing at”! Danny just said that he thought they did that all the time. On the way home Uncle just shook his head and said, “If Ray don’t get a handle on them boys, I don’t know what he’s going to do”. As for myself, I was beginning to like them boys more and more. I had not been around them much up to this time, but I was sure they were going to make living around here an adventure.